Longitudinal data show that high performance in handgrip strength is associated with slower cognitive decline in older Mexican Americans, especially those who are foreign-born.

After age 65, US adults become increasingly likely to have mild cognitive impairment. But what about foreign-born older adults? Do they have the same risks of cognitive decline as those born in the US? In “Nativity differences in the relationship between handgrip strength and cognitive impairment in older Mexican Americans over 20 years of follow-up,” an article in the online-first edition of the April issue of Archives of Gerontology, authors Ventura et al. cited previous studies that have reported associations between handgrip strength and cognitive function, and they discussed the mechanisms that may explain it. They conducted their own investigation of handgrip strength and cognition in older adults, using data from eight waves, between 1993 and 2013, of the prospective cohort study, Hispanic Established Population for the Epidemiological Study of the Elderly (H-EPESE), which they accessed via the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA). An ongoing longitudinal study that interviews community-dwelling older Mexican Americans who were 65 years or older at baseline and resided in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, or Texas, the H-EPESE’s primary purpose is to provide estimates of the prevalence of key physical and mental health conditions and functional impairments in older Mexican Americans and to compare these estimates with those for other populations.

Ventura et al. examined data from 2,155 Mexican Americans from the H-EPESE, aged 65 and over, who had normal or high cognitive function at baseline. Their measures included socio-demographics, body mass index, medical conditions, depressive symptoms, physical function, disability, handgrip strength quartiles (sex-adjusted), and Mini Mental State Examination scores. After controlling for all covariates, their study demonstrated that “older Mexican Americans who performed high in handgrip strength had lower odds of cognitive impairment over time, with the effect being more pronounced in those foreign-born compared to US-born.” Other factors such as higher levels of education, being married, not having depressive symptoms, and not having diabetes, were associated with lower odds of cognitive impairment. While their findings are only generalizable to older Mexican Americans living in the Southwestern United States, they noted that “interventions to improve muscle strength may delay decline or preserve cognitive function in this population.” Click here to see hundreds more publications that make use of H-EPESE data.